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Ignatius of Antioch
[People]Ignatius of Antioch was bishop of the church in Antioch in the early second century. While being taken to Rome for martyrdom, he wrote seven letters. He is counted among the Apostolic Fathers.
Assumption of Moses
[Bible]The Assumption of Moses is a Jewish pseudepigraphal work framed as Moses foretelling Israel's future to Joshua before his death. Early church fathers explained that the account in Jude 1:9 of Michael disputing with the devil came from this book.
Gospel of the Hebrews
[History]The Gospel of the Hebrews is a New Testament apocryphal gospel said to have been read among Christians of Jewish origin around the second century. No copy survives, and the work is known only from a few passages quoted by the Church Fathers.
Ebionites
[Doctrine & Theology]The Ebionites were a Jewish Christian group that existed from the first to the fourth century. Because they insisted on observance of the Mosaic Law and regarded Jesus as a man chosen by God, the early church fathers described them as a group that had departed from orthodoxy.
Gregory I
[People]Gregory I (c. 540–604) was bishop of Rome (pope) from 590 to 604. He is regarded as one of the leading Fathers of the Western Church and is also known as Gregory the Great.
Scholasticism
[History]Scholasticism was a method of learning that developed in the schools and universities of Western Europe from around the eleventh century to the end of the Middle Ages. While accepting the authority of Scripture and the Church Fathers, it sought to explain the content of the faith systematically through logical questioning and disputation.
Psalm 10
[Bible]Psalm 10 is a lament over the reality that the wicked oppress the poor and powerless while God seems far away, and a plea for God to arise and judge on behalf of the fatherless and the oppressed.
Psalm 44
[Bible]Psalm 44 is a song of the sons of Korah. In this lament, the community recalls God's deliverance in the days of their fathers and then cries out "Awake" because it has suffered defeat and shame despite keeping the covenant.
Psalm 68
[Bible]Psalm 68 is a hymn of praise that portrays God, who led His people through the wilderness, marching from Mount Sinai to His sanctuary. It calls the nations to praise the God who cares for the fatherless and widows and scatters His enemies.
Psalm 82
[Bible]Psalm 82 is a psalm of Asaph in which God stands in "the congregation of the mighty" and rebukes those who judge unjustly, commands justice for the poor and the fatherless, and pronounces the downfall of the unjust judges.
Jeremiah 30
[Bible]Jeremiah 30 is a prophecy of restoration in which God promises to bring again the captivity of Israel and Judah and return them to the land of their fathers. It speaks of "the time of Jacob's trouble" and the deliverance that follows, the healing of the people's wounds, and the covenant promise, "Ye shall be my people, and I will be your God."
Colossians 3
[Bible]Colossians 3 urges believers who have been raised with Christ to seek those things which are above, and to put off the old man and put on the new. The chapter closes with a household code addressed to wives and husbands, children and fathers, and servants.
Joseph (Son of Jacob)
[People]Joseph is a figure in the Book of Genesis, the son of Jacob and Rachel. Sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers, he rose to become the country's chief administrator and saved his family during a famine. He is distinct from Joseph of Nazareth, the legal father of Jesus.
1 Corinthians 15:22–26
[Bible Verses]A passage in which Paul contrasts Adam with Christ to set out the order of the resurrection and to declare that death will be destroyed at the last. It is frequently discussed in debates over the millennium and in interpreting the statement that Christ "shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father," and it is often cited in Easter and funeral sermons.
Mark 15:33–37
[Bible Verses]This passage describes the moment just before Jesus died on the cross when, after three hours of darkness, he cried out in the words of Psalm 22:1, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" It is frequently discussed in connection with the suffering of Jesus, the atonement, and the relationship between the Father and the Son.
Daughters of Zelophehad
[People]The daughters of Zelophehad were the five daughters of Zelophehad of the tribe of Manasseh: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. Their request for the inheritance (share of land) of their father, who had died without sons, led to the establishment of an ordinance governing inheritance by daughters.
2 Samuel 16
[Bible]In 2 Samuel 16, David, fleeing from Absalom, receives provisions from Ziba and is cursed by Shimei, while Absalom enters Jerusalem and, on Ahithophel's advice, lies with his father's concubines.
Joseph (Husband of Mary)
[People]Joseph was the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and a descendant of David who appears in the birth narratives of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. He is known to have worked as a carpenter in Nazareth and is regarded as the legal father of Jesus.
Isaiah 63
[Bible]Isaiah 63 portrays one clothed in red garments who comes from Edom and alone executes judgment on the enemies. It then presents the people's prayer of lament, which recalls God's grace in the Exodus and confesses, "Thou, O LORD, art our father."
John 5
[Bible]John 5 is the chapter in which Jesus heals, on the Sabbath, a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years at the Pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem. In the confrontation with the Jews that follows, he delivers a lengthy discourse on the relationship between the Father and the Son, on judgment and life, and on the witnesses that testify of him.